Ask someone to describe New York City and it won’t be long before they are telling you the city is full of skyscrapers. New York has some of the oldest, and most famous, skyscrapers in the world. From 1931 to 1970, the Empire State Building in the city was the tallest structure in the world. But why does New York have so many skyscrapers?
Actually, there are a number of reasons. Let us explain…
1. New York Is A Rich City
A first reason why New York has so many skyscrapers is because it is a rich city.
Skyscrapers are expensive to build. As they cost so much to construct, skyscrapers are usually only built in places where there is a significant concentration of wealth to justify their construction. Since the late 19th Century, New York has been one of the richest cities in the world. The incredible wealth of the city is a key reason why it has so many tall buildings.
By the 1880s, when skyscraper construction in New York began, the city was experiencing a massive economic boom. From 1860, New York was the by far the largest city in North America. It was also a major industrial hub and economically the most important city in the US. The wealth New York generated in the late 19th and early 20th Century was a major reason why developers chose to build skyscrapers in the city.
Throughout the 20th and into the 21st Centuries, New York remained one of the richest cities in the world. This has meant skyscraper construction has continued for decades, resulting in a huge number of impressively tall buildings throughout the city.
2. New York Has Limited Space
A second reason why New York has so many skyscrapers is because of the cities limited space.
New York city is huge. However, the island of Manhattan is tiny. At only 59.1 square kilometres, Manhattan is a comparatively small area on which to build a major city. In the late 19th Century, when New York was expanding rapidly, the city built skyscrapers because of the limited space available.
The limited space in New York meant that land prices have always been high. As there is less space to build and more people wanting to put buildings up, prices for plots rose. In order to ensure the greatest return for an investor’s money, skyscrapers were built as less land was needed and they provided more space to rent out.
Manhattan – where the majority of New York’s skyscrapers are, has always been the economic centre of the city. As the island has limited space, once skyscrapers were invented in the 1880s, it made pure commercial sense to build them in New York.
3. The City Was Expending When New Technology Was Developed
A third reason why New York has many skyscrapers is because the city was building extensively around the time that the technology was developed that allowed for the construction of taller buildings.
Two technological leaps were needed for skyscraper construction to take-off. The first was invention of steel framed buildings. Prior to the 1880s, most buildings were made of wood, bricks or iron. Neither material was suitable for building skyscrapers. By the end of the 19th Century, steel began to be used in building frames. At this time New York was expanding rapidly and so the technology was used extensively to construct tall buildings in the city.
The second technological innovation that was needed before skyscrapers could be constructed was elevators. Really, no one is going to walk up dozens of floors! The first elevators were invented in the year 1880. By end of that decade, the technology was sufficiently widespread, and had been proven safe enough, to be used in many skyscrapers. This was also around the time New York was seeing a construction boom.
4. New York Saw Rapid Urbanisation
Another reason why New York has so many tall buildings is that the city went through a period of rapid urbanisation.
In 1850, the population of New York was around 700,000 people. By 1920, it had grown to over five a half million! In the late 19th and early 20th Century, New York saw its population explode. A mixture of immigration from outside the country – mostly from Europe, combined with migration within the United States, meant literally millions of people moved to New York over a short period of time at the turns of the centuries.
With huge numbers of people moving to the city, buildings had to be constructed that could house them. Taller buildings were ideal as they could be put up easily and provided more space. The combination of rapid urbanization occurring around the time that technology was developed that allowed for skyscrapers to be constructed is a major reason why New York has so many tall buildings.
The rapid expansion in the population of New York continued throughout the 20th Century. As New York’s population grew further, even more skyscrapers were put up.
5. The City’s Ground Allows for Skyscraper Construction
The geology of New York, and especially Manhattan, is another reason why the city has so many skyscrapers.
In order to build tall buildings, solid foundations need to be laid. This involves digging deep into the ground and creating ankers that can support the huge weight of the building above. The type of ground a city sits on is key to what types of building it can have.
New York sits upon an extremely hard bedrock. This makes it an ideal place to build tall buildings. The density of the rock underneath the city means that it can support skyscrapers.
Although today modern technology means that a cities geology does not always hold it back from skyscraper construction, in the late 19th and into the 20th Centuries, when New York was building huge numbers of skyscrapers, the type of ground they were being built on was key. As New York has ideal geology for building tall buildings and it meant many skyscrapers were constructed in the city.
6. Legal Regulations Meant Tall Buildings Could Be Built
A final reason why New York has a lot of skyscrapers is because the law permits tall buildings to be constructed in the city.
US town planning is highly regulated. In 1916, zoning laws were introduced that meant only certain building types could be constructed in designated areas in New York. Many parts of the city, including Manhattan, allowed for the construction of tall buildings. This is a major reason why the city has so many skyscrapers.
Even before zoning laws were introduced in the early 20th Century, New York city legally allowed for skyscrapers to be built. However, the heyday of skyscraper construction in the city was from the 1900s onwards – almost exactly the time of the introduction of zoning laws. The legal requirements in New York meant that tall building could be built, including for offices and housing. This meant developers who had the funds could construct skyscrapers in the city.
Zoning laws dictate how US cities are constructed. The New York city government allowed for huge numbers of skyscrapers to be built and this meant that the city became known for having many tall buildings.